There has been some indication over the years that the Linear Men create controlled paradoxes and die multiple times.

Waverider also died in DC One Million and Our Worlds at War as I recall... and in DC1M, it was implied that after becoming Waverider in Zero Hour, Waverider sought out his past pre-Waverider self to take his place on the team.

Actually, given enough thought I wonder how the Linear Men fit into the BOOSTER GOLD series, since Rip as a Linear Man was a white-haired, roided out cyborg. Given both were created by Dan Jurgens, hopefully it'll be addressed.

Actually, given enough thought I wonder how the Linear Men fit into the BOOSTER GOLD series, since Rip as a Linear Man was a white-haired, roided out cyborg. Given both were created by Dan Jurgens, hopefully it'll be addressed.

Scott Mateo

The current take based on Jurgens' Hunter/Linear Men origin and incongruities with the Time Masters take that seems to have evolved is that the Linear Men's Hunter is the Earth-1 model, who survived COIE, whereas Booster's Rip Hunter, debuting in JSA, is the post-Zero Hour/post-Infinite Crisis Hunter, who replaces/incorporates the version from the 80s Time Masters reboot.

Jurgens himself seems to have offered more than one origin for Hunter's association with the Linear Men, given that in some of Matthew Ryder's origins, Hunter helps him invent time travel and in others he's recruited by Matthew Ryder.

I seem to recall there being at least three Waverider origins.

One had him funded by Lex Luthor II, one had him working alone and one had him working with Rip Hunter.

Once, Waverider and Matthew Rider were guys from two timelines but since the original WR died in Zero Hour and was replaced by Matt, the standard approach is to have them working together even though one is the past self of the other, with the implication that he's meddling pretty heavily with his own timeline, something the Linear Men seem to do an awful lot despite being time police. I seem to recall that their HQ, Vanishing Point, has the Linear Men at various points in their personal histories all working together with themselves and its been implied before that whenever one dies, the past self observes the death and averts it.